THE VALUE OF LATIN.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1092, 3 April 1911, Page 4

THE VALUE OF LATIN.

$ AN ESSENTIAL OP A LIBEEAL EDUCATION. (By Tdcßrapli.-SBdcial Correspondent.! Auckland, April 1. Tho chairman of the Auckland Education Board (Mr. C. J. Parr) is an advoJate of Latin iu schools. "I think there is no better intellectual discipline and mental training than that imparted by a full course of Latin," ho said. "It is, in fact, an absolute necessity for the well-trained professional mind, t urthcrmore, most business men who have received a college training will, I think, admit tho value of their Latin course. I think that, notwithstanding modern developments, Latin should be still given a prominent place in any efficient grammar Khool curriculum. I know I shall be accused of being rather old-fashioned in ray viDf, but I speak as one who lias been through the mill, and who has children now at our secondary schools. Many educational authorities no doubt think that German would 1)6 a more useful tiling than Latin. Mr. Hogben, I believe, is of this opinion, but already in our grammar schools French is taught as a modern language, and if a change is to be mado I would rather see German taken than French, as I think tho German people arc going to exercise the greatest possible influence and power in the world, for which reason a knowledge of their language and literature is likely to bo inoro useful than a knowledge of French. "There is an evident tendency at tho present time to substitute scientific studies —utility studies if I may so term them— for tbo old classical system of study, and for Ihe mass of tho community th'is is advisable; but for your loaders of' thought, your captains of industry, your professional men, you must keep Latm as one of the essentials of a truly liberal education. I am quite satisfied 'that nothing gives a man a better understanding of his mother tongue than a training in the Latin language—the languages of the ancient Romans, whose tongue, though dead as a common speech, is ftill so living in its influence on most of tho languages of Western Europe."